Sunday April 27, 2008

Welcome Home Kindnesses

When we stopped at Jere and Kristen’s yesterday, Josh and Jana gave us neat “Welcome Home” signs.

 By Josh

By Jana

Kristen and Chris

Our daughters-in-law went beyond the call of duty in taking care of things at our house while we were gone.

Kristen brought in our mail, watered the house plants, made sure important mail was forwarded to the International Office, and overnighted our passports to North Bend, WA.  (She and Jere live a mile away, so they always get this job.)

This afternoon when I looked at the photos of our yard, I said to Cerwin, “It looks like someone weeded our flowerbeds.”  They were just too neat for being neglected for three weeks.  When talking to Jeff a short time later, Cerwin found out that Chris felt sorry for us having to come home to weedy flowerbeds and did that job a few days ago.

How Beautiful is Our Valley

I did a walk-around in our yard this afternoon – because I have not seen it for twenty days.

The fields were barely green when we left – now the alfalfa is close to a foot high, and the winter crop of wheat (or rye) has been harvested.

When we had the Easter Egg Hunt two days before we left, the grass was brown…

now it is bright green.

Cerwin will be mowing yard this week.

I always enjoy watching our ferns unfurl each spring.

This was where I first became suspicious that someone had worked in our flowerbeds.

Kristen told us that our red and yellow tulips were so pretty while we were gone.  Some are still pretty, but definitely over the hill.

Other tulips are at their peak.

I’m glad I didn’t miss the short life-span of our bleeding hearts.

The Azalea bush surprised us.  The harsh winter almost killed it a few years ago.  This year it is back in full-bloom.

This is the shot that convinced me someone had been working in our flowerbeds. 

Notice the pink dogwood, weeping cherry, and apple trees.  The flowering cherry is hidden behind the dogwood.

Pink Dogwood

Weeping Cherry

Apple

Flowering Cherry

 White Dogwood

We planted this tree in memory of our grandson, Elijah, who was born with a heart deformity, and died in 1994 at the age of five months.

A large tree hit this dogwood last summer and took the middle out of it, but the two sides are in beautiful bloom.

~~~

It is good to be home after being on the road for nineteen days and eighteen nights – but I would do it again in a minute.

We stayed at friend’s houses seven nights, in a motel two nights, and in the truck nine nights – and slept well at each place, but our own waterbed felt so-o-o good last night.

It was good to attend our own church this morning and be welcomed home by those who knew we had been on the road.

It was good to walk barefoot in our own yard.

It was good to cook again.  I made a ham, potato, and green bean lunch.

It was good to relax in or own La-Z-Boys this afternoon.